Small School Postseason Players to Watch

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Let's look at some small school kids who could decide how the small-school brackets look heading into Sectionals in two weeks.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='636190' first='Alayna' last='Panich']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Panich has been in the South Central Conference, which Westfield has dominated the past few seasons. However, Panich and the Hornets have a chance to hand the Pioneers their first conference loss since 2021 in their final conference game, and it's in the realm of possibility. In their first matchup, Panich excelled, leading the Hornets in scoring, but came up one point short on the road. Wautoma's seniors, especially Panich and Montana Groskruetz, have been integral pieces of the program and have the experience to make a run this month. Older-guard-oriented teams tend to do well this time of year.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Julia Rybacki</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Somerset is an intriguing team right now. They were a few points away from getting to the Resch Center a year ago. Rybacki is also a kid who's challenging to prepare for. She's an excellent athlete with a good handle on the ball and can change directions on a dime. I haven't watched as much of Somerset as I did a year ago, but Rybacki is still the same kid. She'll get to the basket no matter what defense you throw out there and make opposing guards uncomfortable when she gets out beyond the three-point to pressure the ball. She's fun to watch.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Jadelynn Kroll</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Storm went from a below .500 team a year ago to a team that earned a No. 1 seed in their subsection, and Kroll is a big reason for their turnaround. After a year of getting the feel of varsity basketball, she's been more comfortable and found some added consistency to her game. Although Kroll will likely earn the label of a shooter, she's also a tough-small town kid. She tries to make plays on the ball defensively and won't shy away from contact around the rim. Her ability to shoot and run off screens draws so much attention that it creates easy baskets for her teammates. Kroll will be a dominant force in the Packerland for the next two seasons.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Piper Olson</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The usual method of Grantsburg defense is to play a 2-3 zone, pressure the ball so they attack the basket, Ruby Rengo then contests around the basket, and Olson rebounds the missed shot. That works at the D4 level when two lengthy 6-foot kids hang out around the rim. She's mainly looking to score over her right shoulder and has some solid touch with her left hand, but she'll likely have the smaller forward on her, or the more likely result, playing in the middle of a 2-3 zone. She could play in the middle of zones by keeping the ball high, forcing defenses to collapse, finding open teammates, or crashing the offensive boards.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->